What Books Are on Your Summer Reading List?

Each month, Look Who’s Talking features voices from across BWH answering the same question. If you would like to add your voice to the conversation, please submit a comment at the bottom of the page. This month, we are asking: “What books are on your summer reading list?” These can be books that you have just finished, are currently reading or plan to read later this summer.

“One book I’ve been particularly enjoying is It Worked for Me, by Colin Powell. His experiences are extraordinarily inspiring, and his success is something I think well worth emulating. I’ve been going back and forth on that and A Fighter’s Heart, by Sam Sheridan, which is also attempting to keep my motivation and ambitions high! I’m looking forward to reading Ron Chernow’s Alexander Hamilton, simply because it has received great buzz. And I’ll try and balance that with Sick in the Head, by Judd Apatow, and The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho, which were recommended by a friend of mine.

“I just finished reading When Breath Becomes Air, by Dr. Paul Kalanithi. This is a deeply moving memoir about a young neurosurgeon diagnosed with advanced lung cancer. I was so touched by Dr. Kalanithi’s courage and strength as he reflects on his own mortality and ponders some of the most difficult questions we face in life. I found it to be poignant and life-affirming.”

Elizabeth G. Nabel, MD, President, Brigham and Women’s Health Care

“1966: The Year the Decade Exploded by Jon Savage. It’s about the intersection of Civil Rights, gay rights, women’s rights and the Vietnam War in the context of art and culture in the Western world at that time. The same author wrote England’s Dreaming, a great book about the Sex Pistols.”

“Currently I am reading A Brief History of Seven Killings, by Marlon James, which uses the story of the 1976 assassination attempt on Bob Marley’s life to explore Jamaican society and the nexus between politics and crime. Other books on my reading list are A Little Life, by Hanya Yanagihara, and The Year of the Runaways, by Sunjeev Sahota.”